System and method for managing sensitive data using intelligent mobile agents on a network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9449010-B2
Application number	US-201113078940-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2011
Priority date	Apr 2, 2011
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

In order to manage stale data on a network of computer systems, a file harvester agent may be configured with a list of stale data files to be deleted. The file harvester agent may be deployed to the computer systems of a network. When executed in a computer system, the file harvester agent searches the file system of the computer system to locate any files or data indicated in the file list. Any located data files are deleted. Once the agent has finished processing the file list on a computer system, the agent can copy or replicate itself to other computer systems of the network in accordance with a pre-configured itinerary.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing data on a computer network comprising a plurality of computer systems, the method comprising:
configuring an agent at a first computer system of the plurality of computer systems, with a list comprising one or more entries, at least one entry of the one or more entries comprising a complete filename;
configuring the agent with an itinerary that specifies a plurality of second computer systems of the computer network for the agent to deploy itself to;
after configuring the agent with the list of one or more files and the itinerary, deploying the agent from the first computer system to a first of the second computer systems of the plurality of second computer systems specified in the itinerary;
searching a first filesystem of the first of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the first filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list;
deleting the located one or more files located on the first filesystem of the a first of the second computer systems;
determining by the agent from the itinerary a next second computer system of the plurality of second computer systems;
moving the agent from the first of the second computer systems to the next of the second computer systems;
searching a second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the second filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list; and
deleting the located one or more files located on the second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising configuring the agent with a stale file list comprising a plurality of entries that indicate one or more files to be searched for and deleted.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the plurality of entries comprise one or more of a partial file path, a partial filename, a complete filepath, a complete filename, a unique hash for the information stored in a file, a specific subset of data stored in a file, a date stamp of a file, a partial database statement, a complete database statement, and a unique identifier for a record in a database.

4. The method of claim 2 comprising deploying the agent to a plurality of the plurality of computer systems and processing the stale file list at each of the plurality of computer systems to which the agent is deployed.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising moving the agent o a second computer system of the plurality of computer systems.

6. The method of claim 5 comprising configuring the agent with an agent itinerary and moving the agent according to the agent itinerary.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising reporting one or more actions of the agent to a management application.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more files deleted on a computer system.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer readable medium comprising instructions for:
configuring an agent at a first computer system of the plurality of computer systems, with a list comprising one or more entries, at least one entry of the one or more entries comprising a complete filename;
configuring the agent with an itinerary that specifies a plurality of second computer systems of the computer network for the agent to deploy itself to;
after configuring the agent with the list of one or more files and the itinerary, deploying the agent from the first computer system to a first of the second computer systems of the plurality of second computer systems specified in the itinerary;
searching a first filesystem of the first of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the first filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list;
deleting the located one or more files located on the first filesystem of the a first of the second computer systems;
determining by the agent from the itinerary a next second computer system of the plurality of second computer systems;
moving the agent from the first of the second computer systems to the next of the second computer systems;
searching a second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the second filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list; and
deleting the located one or more files located on the second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems.

10. A computer system comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory operatively associated with the at least one processor;
wherein the processor is configured to:
configure an agent at a first computer system of the plurality of computer systems, with a list comprising one or more entries, at least one entry of the one or more entries comprising a complete filename;
configure the agent with an itinerary that specifies a plurality of second computer systems of the computer network for the agent to deploy itself to;
after the agent is configured with the list of one or more files and the itinerary, deploy the agent from the first computer system to a first of the second computer systems of the plurality of second computer systems specified in the itinerary;
search a first filesystem of the first of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the first filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list;
delete the located one or more files located on the first filesystem of the a first of the second computer systems;
determine by the agent from the itinerary a next second computer system of the plurality of second computer systems;
move the agent from the first of the second computer systems to the next of the second computer systems;
search a second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems using the agent to locate one or more files of the second filesystem that have a complete filename that matches a complete filename of an entry in the list; and
delete the located one or more files located on the second filesystem of the next of the second computer systems.

Assignees

• Wheeler Thomas T
• Lipari Paul
• Open Invention Network Llc

Inventors

• Wheeler Thomas T
• Lipari Paul

Classifications

• G06F16/137

  Hash-based (content-based indexing of textual data G06F16/31) · CPC title

• G06F16/1834

  implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella (p2p communication protocols H04L67/104) · CPC title

• G06F16/17 Primary

  Details of further file system functions · CPC title

• G06F16/152 Primary

  using file content signatures, e.g. hash values · CPC title

• G06F16/1748

  De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments (de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641) · CPC title